Nalakwsis: Through memory

Using black and white illustration as their primary medium, Nalakwsis creates striking and emotionally resonant pieces that carry the textures of memory, histories, and relationships – with people, with grandparent teachings, animals, and the land.

Though the work is not loud in colour, it speaks boldly in meaning, often layered with symbolism that emerges through natural motifs, such as the beaver, sprigs of cedar, the stars, tobacco ties and smudge shell, the braids of sweetgrass or hair, the baby wrapped in a moss bag, caribou in the night sky, and the buffalo skulls.The finely drawn ink illustrations come from dreams and memories and the passing on of knowledge and what has been learned as well as a recognition of that which still needs to be learned.

As a two-spirit artist, Nalakwsis’ practice is also a space of self-reclamation and cultural continuity. The illustrations in this exhibition as well as in their digital drawing practice, are often deeply personal, exploring themes of gender, belonging, and transformation in ways that honour both traditional Eeyou understandings and their lived experience. The simplified palette adds clarity and contrast to the layered meanings in their work, emphasizing the balance between light and shadow — a reflection, perhaps, of the tensions and harmonies they navigate in holding multiple identities.

Their practice is firmly rooted in Eeyou Istchee, the territory that continues to shape their vision and commitment. Nalakwsis offers a visual archive that contributes to cultural survival and resurgence. The memory work they are doing is not only in the quality of the art itself, but in the ways the work participates in the intergenerational process of knowledge transmission, cultural affirmation, and healing.

Nalakwsis’ illustrations are a testament to the power of family, dreams, ancestral memory, knowledge held within the body and the strength found in creating a rich art practice. Their art reminds us that black and white can be as expansive as any colour when it is shaped by the artist’s personal story and a presence that endures.

Lori Beavis is an independent curator, art educator and art historian living and working in Tiohtià:ke/ Montreal. Identifying as Michi Saagiig (Mississauga) Anishinaabe and Irish-Welsh settler. Beavis is a citizen of Hiawatha First Nation at Rice Lake, Ontario. Her curatorial work, art practice and research, articulates narrative and memory in the context of family and cultural history, and reflects on cultural identity, art education and self-representation. Since 2014, she has curated solo and group exhibitions with Shelley Niro, Jobena Petonoquot, Barry Ace, Hannah Claus, Eruoma Awashish, Dayna Danger, Maria Ezcurra and Kaia’tanó:ron Dumoulin Bush. From 2016 to 2023 Beavis worked with Hiawatha First Nation on an exhibition of the quilled, birch bark makakoon created by women at Rice Lake village and gifted to the Prince of Wales in 1860. The award-winning exhibition, To Honour and Respect: Gifts from the Michi Saagiig Women to the Prince of Wales, 1860, co-curated with Dr. Laura Peers, was exhibited at the Peterborough Museum & Archives, Nogojiwanong/ Peterborough in 2023. Beavis is the Executive Director of Centre d’art daphne,Tiohtià:ke’s first Indigenous artist-run centre.

Galerie She:kon, which means “hello” in Kanien’kéhà, focuses on showcasing solo exhibitions by up-and-coming Indigenous artists and curators. The Contemporary Native Art Biennial (BACA) would like to thank the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ) for their financial support.

Information: www.baca.ca/en/galerie-shekon/nalakwsis/

Contact: www.baca.ca/en/contact-us